“When is the Right Time to Honor Our Military Heroes?” is this year’s Patriot’s Pen essay topic.

Patriot’s Pen, a youth-essay writing contest is a nationwide competition that gives students in grades 6,7 and 8 the opportunity to write essays expressing their views on democracy. Annually, more than 115,000 students participate in the contest.

Shelby worked hard on her essay all weekend and is really excited that she wrote it without any help. Heck, I didn’t even get to see it until last night when she came home from school, but I’m super proud of her and sharing her essay with all of you…